


Newer ain't better (I'm all for nostalgia)

by Crymore



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, cannon is my bitch, len is a good boyfriend, len rambles and so does ray and the rambling helps them solve issues, ray is a baby wreck, ryan needs validation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-07 23:31:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21226058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crymore/pseuds/Crymore
Summary: A brief pop to the future has the Legends encounter a new Atom, Ryan Choi. Ray comes to face an old awful feeling of inadequacy, and Len has to pull him from it.





	Newer ain't better (I'm all for nostalgia)

Ryan Choi was practically perfect in every way.

And damn, did that burn Ray.

He couldn’t bring himself to hate Ryan, not when the kid looked at Ray like he hung to moon and personally handcrafted the stars. Ryan was polite and courteous, and his bashful awkwardness was endearing. He really was smarter than anyone Ray had ever met in his field, and being outshined by some college student from the future wasn’t exactly making Ryan Ray’s favorite person at the moment. 

And how did Raymond Palmer, the Atom, meet Ryan Choi, the Atom of the future?

Well, here’s how.

In the year 20-whatever (whenever the kids that Ray’s generation had are adults), there was an issue caused by time travelling, and for once the issue wasn’t caused by the Legends. Shocking, I know. But once Gideon alerted the team, it was a unanimous decision to investigate and to see if there was anything they could do to help. (Mick joked that no one was allowed to mess up the timeline except them). If nothing more, the excursion was an excuse for the team to stretch their legs and take a break (being on the ship 24/7 was making everyone tense and orny). 

So they went to Central City, year 20-whatever. Despite the futuristic improvements and some new buildings, Leonard still knew his city better than anyone else, and paired with Gideon’s directions from the ship, the team managed to get to the abandoned building that the unknown time traveller was in. 

And all was well and good until they heard the sound of a fight from inside the building.

The team went into defense mode. Mick and Len weidling their guns, Firestorm fusing, Sara withdrawing her weapon of choice that day, Nate steeling up, and Ray quickly putting on his Atom armor. Pride radiated in Ray’s chest at the sight of his team, roaring for battle at the drop of a hat, like the A-Team (he and Len had been spending their down time reminiscing classic media from their youth and have been binge-watching anything from the 80’s-90’s in their room, so the reference was quick to pop up in his head). 

On Sara’s command, the team entered the building, fully prepared to fight whoever broke the fragile laws of time travel… to a greater extent than the team normally does.

But there was someone already taking care of it.

Whoever the hero was wore a bright blue and red suit, a shade more saturated than Ray’s, and quickly sucker punched the man Ray suspected of being the bad guy (they were always so predictable by always wearing all black. Even Len wore his parka to lighten up his wardrobe), into some big swirling vortex that Ray could only assume was a time worm-hole. The battle was either great and troublesome, or the warehouse it took place in was already in shambles when it went down.

Sara sighed, obviously disappointed she didn’t get to fight. Everyone was a little bit. But the Legends didn’t know for certain who the illegal time traveller was despite what the scene looked like, so they just eyed the brightly colored man as he sighed in relief and turned to the exit.

Where the team was. 

The man wore a cowl, only leaving the bottom part of his face and eyes exposed. And Ray saw the eyes widen and mouth stutter as the man looked wildly between all the Legends.

“You- you’re them!” he exclaimed, pointing wildly between the members of the team. “You’re the Legends! From the Waverider!” He sighed happily, pulling the cowl off completely, exposing pitch black hair and wide brown eyes. He was asian, that much Ray could tell, a little shorter than he was but just as broad. He seemed years younger, just about college-aged. His expression was completely overjoyed, like he was a kid with a hundred dollar bill in a candy shop without parental supervision. 

Sara shifted. Ray couldn’t see her expression from where he was, but he can imagine she was donning her most swash-buckling grin she had in her arsenal. “Well, you know who we are,” she leaned on her staff to appear more relaxed, probably to make the unknown hero more at ease (Sara was good at manipulating a person like that (so was Len)), “Care to return a favor?”

“Oh!” he exclaimed. “Right! I’m Ryan, uh Choi. The- the Atom!” he proclaimed proudly.

Ray stilled, heart sinking a bit. 

Logically, if there is another Atom, that means the original, Ray himself, was out of commission. Does this mean Ray dies? Retires? Turns evil? Disappears? And who was this guy taking up his mantle? Did Ray train him or something, or rather will train him.

The expression on Ray’s face was enough to send Ryan into another sputter. “I mean I’m not THE Atom, that’s like, you, but I am him now, I mean, I have the name, not that I took it-!”

“Jesus Haircut, did you reproduce asymmetrically?” Mick scoffed. 

“Asexually.” Ray corrected absentmindedly, still trying to digest the fact that there’s a guy who is using his superhero name in the future. 

Ray felt a hand on his shoulder and from the cologne he could smell he knew it was Len. It did offer some comfort to know his level-headed boyfriend was right there, but it did little to quell the maelstrom of questions in Ray’s mind. 

“Omigod, you must be still on Waverider with the Legends!” Ryan exclaimed joyfully, a smile splitting his face. 

Mick did have a point, Ray supposed. Ryan reminded Ray very much of himself. All of Ray’s enthusiasm was exaggerated on the younger man, the costume almost a replica but more… finely tuned? He seemed more comfortable, more natural in the costume…

A hand fell heavily on on Ray’s shoulder, startling him from his train of thought. He turned his head to the owner of the hand, and brown eyes met cool grey and Ray felt better almost instantly. Len has that affect on him. 

Len peered at his boyfriend in a familiar way. A look that said “I recognize you’re uncomfortable, and I have a good idea why, and we can talk about it all later, but for now you got to keep your head.” 

The hero nodded, one hand coming up to gently squeeze his thief’s hand in appreciation, leaning over to peck one of the finger with a kiss for good measure. 

Len smiled slyly, crowding closer to his boyfriend with a glint in his eye. “Keep that up…” he drawled, “And we might make back to the ship without a public indecency charge.”

Ray became flustered happily. “It was one kiss! On your hand!” He stage whispered in a scandalous tone, forgetting about the others and the new kid who still continued to converse without the input of the resident couple. 

Len shrugged off Ray’s explanation on innocent affection and pulled him closer. “Yeah, but it’s you.” He said, as if that explained how Raymond’s childish peck was translated to sensuos on Len’s end. 

Ray rolled his eyes affectionately, curling closer to the thief, still ignoring the group the seems to move from being sparsely spread in the warehouse to crowding around the new Atom, their chatter white noise to the pair left behind.

“Oh, wow! It’d be an honor!” Ryan exclaimed from his center point of the group. 

The rise of his voice brought Len and Ray out of their little world, causing Len to scowl and Ray to flush in embarrassment. 

“What’s going on?” Ray managed to ask despite the fact his throat felt closed up from his brief bewilderment. 

Sara smiles widely, amused at something and eyes sparkling with mischief. “Baby Atom is joining us for dinner.”

Oh. 

Great. 

—-

Ryan spent the walk to the ship excitedly describing the future in a way that wouldn’t give away anything major. He talked about sports and fashion trends and avoided politics and the status of heroes. Smart. 

Nate seemed to favor Ryan at the moment, and hadn’t even looked at Ray since they entered the warehouse and encountered the younger Atom. Ray tried not to feel abandoned. 

He was reasonably geeking out over the Waverider, seeing as time travel is only something a speedster can do still in his era. He marveled over the sleek design and was massively enamored by Gideon and her special brand of sass. 

He was acting the same exact way Raymond did when he was first in the ship. The look everyone was sharing between the Atoms showed they came to that conclusion as well. 

It was Mick’s turn to make dinner, so it was sandwiched (the one thing he can’t burn) and Ryan was thrilled to be included, rattling off soft news and complimenting the ship between bites. 

Everytime Ryan tries to engage Ray into a conversation, the older Atom answered politely but curtly, keeping his answers short but answering everything to completion, just so Ryan would stop talking to him. Ray didn’t like the dark feeling in his stomach whenever Ryan looked at him. 

At least Len seemed glued to his side since the warehouse. Silent and watching, but a comfort. 

“Your costume ain’t half as bulky as Ray’s.” Jax observed lightly, pointing to the young Atom with his sandwich. 

“You don’t even have like, blasters or anything.” Nate chimed in, playfully critical. 

Ryan seemed to perk up considerably at that. “Oh, my suit is made out of a special latex that stretches with me.”

That piqued Ray’s interest. “So is the dwarf star element woven into the fabric?” 

Ryan seemed genuinely confused for a half second before laughing lightly. “Oh, no, no no, uh, I don’t need the dwarf star like you did- do.” He corrected. “Um, I’m a meta! Basically, I’m a meta, its… um, a little complicated but-“

“Finally!” Jax explained, throwing hands up comically. “Another meta!” He cried joyously. 

Chuckles were chorused around the dinner table sans the couple sitting together. Ray felt his stomach sink a bit and Len could feels Ray’s discomfort. 

“It’s not much.” Ryan humble bragged. “Like, the growing and shrinking thing is a given, I wouldn’t be Atom without it. And a few extras.”

“Like what?” Sara egged on, leaning back and sipping idly at her glass and gaze roaming around the table at her crew mates. 

Ryan shrugged, eyes flickering to Jax’s expectant face, flushed and tucked his head down laughing slightly. “Um, well I’m more than average.” 

The beat of awkward silence after that phrase sent Mick and Sara into peels of laughter, Nate, Len, and Martin into quiet smothered chuckles, and Jax into a flustered silence. Ray remained stoic, absorbing the information. 

“I just mean that um above average in normal aspects! Like, I’m just stronger and faster and all!” Ryan quickly explaining, a blush and panic marring his face. 

“How fast?” Nate asked. 

Ryan, still blushing, scratched his neck in awkwardness. “Well, I’m no XS or Flash, but I can beat just about any other person in a foot race.”

Sara’s laugh petered off as she took another swing of her drink. “How strong?”

Another shrug. “I don’t really know how to measure it. It’s kinda hard finding something heavy enough to test me.”

Great. He’s all humble about it too.

Ray was so busy trying to ignore the ugly feeling in his stomach, he almost didn’t notice that Ryan was sneaking glances at him. Everytime Ryan explained a power or an accomplishment, his brown eyes searched Raymond’s face searching for something. (Ray’s attention was pointedly not on the other Atom but rather on Leonard, only catching snippets of the other groups conversation, but Leoanrd knew the look on Ryan’s face quite well; the desperate face of a boy looking for approval).

\---

Somewhere in between dessert and Mick and Ryan arm wrestling, Ray had excused himself to his lab to tinker and distract himself. Raymond wasn’t exactly sure how to feel about the new Atom. 

Part of him was thrilled that his legacy lived on, that someone was inspired by him enough to continue to do good works in his name. 

Another part of him was… angry, jealous. Jealousy wasn’t forgein to him; it was familiar in a deep sense. Ray was always jealous of Sydney growing up; they were so similar but it was Sydney who always excelled at sports, and back then that’s all that their parents cared about. Seeing Ryan being a natural talent, with his super powers and enhancements and all that charisma, it was like Raymond was 13 again, standing in Sydney’s shadow.

Ray was sure he didn’t actually dislike Ryan, it’s just that he reminded Raymond so much of his twin, and anything that reminded Ray of Sydney immediately is negative to him, and after that impression it was hard to change Ray’s opinion.

The scientist was so caught up in his thinking he didn’t even notice all he had been doing for the past few minutes was tightening a screw too much and that Leonard had entered the room. The thief didn’t say anything once he knew his boyfriend noticed him, he just wandered around the familiar lab, picking up odds and ends and putting them back down. Eventually Len half-sat on the work table and leaned over into Ray’s space, forcing eye contact with Ray’s sad browns.

The thief raised a single eyebrow questioningly before leaning down further and pecked Ray on the forehead. The scientist giggled at the affection, ducking his head trying to avoid Len’s oncoming hands, which gently gripped his face and pulled him back into an onslaught of little kisses.

Ray’s face was burning. Leonard was seldom this affectionate, so it was a good idea to savor the moment before he pulled away. Len laid on lingering kiss to Rya’s cheek bone, pressed so hard Ray could swear he could feel Len’s teeth through the pressure. 

“Wassup with you, Pretty Thing?” Len drawled, slipping off the table and gracefully positioning himself behind Ray, wrapping an arm around his neck. The smothering was making Ray flustered, but undeniably happy. “You sped outta there so fast I thought you were Barry.”

Ray sighed and shrugged, trying to dislodge the arm. He wasn’t exactly in the mood for talking about feelings. “I’m just tired is all. Been a long day.” An outright lie. Len had been with him almost every second of the day and can read Ray like a book; he knows exactly what’s wrong with him.

Len hummed to show he was listening, his nose digging into Ray’s hair. 

“Your’re awfully affectionate today, Len.” Ray observed, moving to focus on another screw that needed tightening on the suit. “That’s usually my thing.” Maybe if he ignores Len, he could avoid the discussion that was obviously going to happen regarding Ray’s uncharacteristically unfriendly attitude towards Ryan.

“And you’re awfully cold today… that’s usually my thing.” Len’s hand moved to roughly grab Ray’s shoulders, now cementing him in place. There wasn’t any escape now for Ray.

There was a beat of silence, mostly from Ray’s reluctance to address the problem. Len let out a deep sigh before continuing.

“I know I might be a bit biased…” Len drawled, running his hands up and down Ray’s arms, the friction warming the scientist. “But, I know for a fact I like the OG Atom compared to the new version.”

Ray couldn’t stop the scoff that came from him. “Yeah right.” he seethed between his teeth, his face heating up because of his embarrassment at the situation. “Who wouldn’t want the person who can do everything I can do but faster and better and without a suit.”

The coolness of Len’s leather jacket soothed some of the heat coming off of Ray (damn his full body blush). “It’s comparing apples and oranges, Ray.”

“No it isn’t.” Ray rebuked. And he’s right, he knows. Ryan’s stronger and faster than him, smarter than him, better at this whole hero thing than Ray ever had been. 

All the stories that the crew has been hearing all night only proved that Ryan took to heroism like a fish to water, quickly becoming a respected individual and easily gained the trust of his peers. He didn’t have to troubleshoot experiments, didn’t have to brown-nose for grants and loans for said experiments, didn’t have to scrimp and practically sacrifice himself to get the trust of his teammates, didn’t have to bare himself, insecurities and all just to gain some of their respect. Ryan just swooped in and proved he was more useful than Rat in five minutes than Ray could in five months. 

Oh, geez, the Legends could replace him. It’s not unlike them to pick up random heroes across time to join (Wally and Amaya come to mind); and if they had Ryan they certainly had no use for Ray, no one kept around an old model when the new one was there. And even if they didn’t keep Ryan, the Legends would surely always be comparing Ray to him now, now that they’ve seen what the best is, Ray is always going to fall short in their minds. How could Ray compare to Ryan?

“Well, first off, Ryan’s a bit too smug.” Len said.

“... I said all that aloud, haven’t I?” Ray winced. That happened occasionally; Ray getting so wrapped up in his head that he didn’t even notice his motormouth going off and betraying him. 

Len moved to the front of Ray, shimmying himself between the table and the scientist. The look on Len’s face would be pitying if his eyes weren’t so soft.”Ray, Ryan can’t hold a candle to you.” he reassured. “You can tell a lot about a man by the strife he’s been through. You’ve been through so much and you still stick to being the good guy.” One of Len’s always cold hands carded itself into Ray’s hair. “Weaker men would see what you’ve done and hightailed it. All the new kid’s done is gone through puberty and had to pick which spandex color to parade around in.”

Ray snorted in laughter. “Don’t be mean.”

“I am mean, pretty thing.” Len retorted lightly. “But I am serious. You might think that kid’s better than you in every conceivable way; but in case you haven’t noticed, he looks at you like you hang the moon in the sky.” Len stressed. “You go on and on about how much better he is than you but he’s the one who thinks your hot shit.”

Ray let the words stew in him for a long moment. “Kids shouldn’t meet their heroes.” he concluded, downcasting his eyes. “He’s just going to be disappointed in me.” 

Len dramatically rolled his eyes and grasped Ray’s chin, making his boyfriend make eye contact. “I’ve never met anyone who mattered who was disappointed in you.”

That statement could be interpreted several ways. Len obviously never met Ray’s father (who could only go on about how big a disappointment Ray was) and could just not have encountered anyone who voiced their honest opinion about Ray. Len could mean that he just has yet to meet anyone who openly disliked Ray. It could mean that Len believed anyone who was disappointed in Ray didn’t matter. (Ray likes to think it’s the third one).

Ray knew that he was valued by the team, by Len. it’s just his head gets dark and then he spirals into a dark line of questioning that made him depressed and second guess everything he’s ever done. Leonard was always patient reminding Ray how much he means, always good at getting to the point of Ray’s problems and nixing them the way they needed to be. Len was a rock to Ray’s turmoiled sea of a brain. Something on Ray’s face must have shown he was more relaxed, because Leonard’s face immediately relaxed as well. 

“Why don’t you give the up start some badass stories from when you first started with the Legends.” The thief ducked in low to nuzzle the side of Ray’s face, eliciting soft laughter from the scientist. “I bet you’ll blow his mind when you tell him you’ve been to the moon.”

“You’ve been to the moon?!”

The couple startled apart, Leonard glaring harshly at the intruder while Raymond floundered and tried to regain his composure.

Ryan stood bashfully in the doorway, torn between looking around Ray’s lab in wonder and looking at the two men apologetically. 

“I’m so sorry, but, um, the scary blonde one told me- asked me to check up on you guys, and the door opened automatically-”

Ray almost wanted to laugh. Ryan is just like Ray used to be in high school. Leonard had stopped glaring by now and just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms defensively, trying to regain some of his tough guy reputation. 

“Ray’s done a bunch of cool shit like that.” Leonard interrupted Ryan’s little ramble. “I’m sure he’s be glad to tell you about it.”

Ryan looked startled at Leonard’s cutting in, then looked to Ray with wide hopeful eyes.

The younger Atom really did look ready to soak up every word Ray would say. 

Ray felt himself smile pull at the enthusiasm of the young hero. “How about I show you the pulsar blasters on my suit?”

Ryan practically burst into the room. “Actually can you show me how the suit works in general? That kinda tech got lost to time and we have historians and mechanics losing their minds trying to recreate it.” Ryan moved next to Ray as his eye ate up the sight of exo-suit. “And you did the mods on the cold gun design, right? Not to mention the nanites and-”

Ray really couldn't help the smile that stretched across his face at Ryan’s excited rambling; the previous anger and envy sapping our of him.

\---

Ray rolled over in bed, tuckered out from spending a few good hours satisfying Ryan’s curiosity and answering every question that shot out of the kid’s mouth. Len was, assumingly, dead asleep next to him, hogging half the blankets like he always does.

There was hardly a moment of silence before Len spoke. “I want you to know you were like that all the time when we first met.”

A chuckle erupted from Ray as he turned to face his boyfriend. “Teeming with unbridled curiosity?”

“I was going to say adorably nerdy, but yeah, that works too.” Len shuffled closer to Ray, tucking himself next to Ray’s longer body. “Good thing the kid’s got someone like you to be his role model.” Len wiggled around a bit more before finally settling, his warmth leaching into Ray. the words warmed Rat up in a way that body heat couldn’t.

Silence settled between them, and in lieu of a good-night, Ray mumbled, “Thanks,” before succumbing to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> this was requested a year ago but i'm a moron who is awful at time management and college is a bitch.


End file.
